Hugh De Luc, a poor innkeeper, returns home from the First Crusade wearied from battle and disillusioned by carnage. After journeying from the Holy Land back to his own small village, he finds his nightmare is just beginning.

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Publisher's Summary

Hugh De Luc, a poor innkeeper, returns home from the First Crusade wearied from battle and disillusioned by carnage. After journeying from the Holy Land back to his own small village, he finds his nightmare is just beginning.

In his absence, Hugh's son has been killed and his beloved wife, Sophie, abducted by a ruthless duke in search of a priceless relic dating back to the Crucifixion. Taking on the role of a jester, Hugh infiltrates the court where he believes Sophie is held captive. There he confronts men more evil than he ever imagined and embarks on an epic battle to restore his broken life.

The Jester is one of the best books I have read (heard) based on the dark ages crusades, ties in historical facts with a good paced story and multiple links between characters and religious artifacts. The ending was such a suprise as we learn who people really were, this is a great read for all. Well pleased and highly reccommend this book.

The narration is excellent. Each voice fits the character perfectly and greatly enriches the experience. Romance, blood and guts, revolution,raunchy humor, history and religion in equal parts. What more could you want ? The good guy even triumphs! I didn't want to stop listening or the story to end.

I took a chance on this one and was not disappointed. It held my interest all the way through, with brilliant characterizations, lots of action, and some history thrown in. Not for the feint of heart. Improbable, but happy, ending. If you don't enjoy this time period, ca 1000 AD, avoid this book. It is about the Crusades.

I think James Patterson is a hit or miss. This one is a hit. I read it over 6 months ago and I often think back about how great this book was. The narration of this book doesn't get any better. I love how The Jester took me back in time and made be feel like I was living during the time of the crusaders. This book is a must read...

The plot may be a little bit formulaic but the story is grand adventure all the same, and I enjoyed it. I'm a little surprised by the negative reviews - it is a book about medieval times for grownups, after all. The "bawdy" jokes and sex references are quite mild, so if you find this book offensive for that then I'd have to say you most definitely qualify as a prude. If anything, it was the violence and wanton cruelty of war practices and criminal injustice during those ages that made me wince.

If your looking for great fiction this isn't for you but if you want to be entertained than this story has much to offer. Yes, you have to take large chunks of the story with a boulder of salt and forgive many plot devices. However, I enjoyed this novel tremendously and the narration was great. I loved the period aspects of the book especially the peasants against the nobles and just didn't care about the accuracy. There are authors that take much more liberties with history than are found in this book.

I must admit that having recently heard two of James Patterson's recent detective mysteries, I'm not exactly a fan. I chose this novel because I was curious as to how a mystery writer would handle a period piece. In a nutshell "badly".

The story line is contrived and unnecessarily crude. While the plot moves quickly, it is predictable from beginning to end. The author used one cute trick. He included every dirty joke that email has produced in the last two years (at least a dozen anyway). Interestingly a story that takes place mostly in France was read with a British accent. Also some of the French characters were given French names others English. What a mish mash. I guess I really didn't like it.

Some of Pattersons books dont hit home to me but this one is, well, in a way beautiful. I cant call it anything else because that is the way I saw it after I finished it. The characters came to life and meant something to me while I read and not too many books do that. I read it and then got the audiobook because I loved it so much. And I have only done that a couple of times before. I recommend it to anyone that loves a story about fighting to overcome great evil for the one you love. The book is about so much more than just that but this is a huge theme to the book. The book does have some curse words in it but they do not drown it in needless vulgarity. I hope you love it if you try it.

This one was a little strange for me coming from James Patterson. If you are familiar with his books, you expect a certain type so when he offers a book so off the mark from his usual, it feels a little like false advertising. It makes me wonder how much he actually contributes to the writing or if he is just 'Selling his Name' on some of his co-written books.

This one was a surprise, however. I hardly can give credit to Mr. Patterson, since it is so far from anything I have read of his, so I guess the credit is going to his unknown co-writer Andrew Gross.

I usually like current day murder/mystery stories, but his was about the Crusades in Europe when knights were off pilaging towns in search of historical christian artifacts. Although I am not too interested in the topic, I did really enjoy the listen. The historical references and the descriptive about what actually could have occured were fabulous. It actually made me more interested in learning about those times and the struggles of the peasants - who were killed and tortured for entertainment or for any reason at all.

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